The reluctant heroes
by Aethys
Summary: AU! - After struggling through her younger days as an orphan on Earth, Shepard ends up as a freelaning mercenary in outer space, commanding her own ship and small crew. She will learn, however, that messing around in Spectre business brings more trouble than she could've imagined.
1. Prelude

**AN:** **As it is written in the summary, this story takes places in an alternate universe. Lots of characters from the series will appear, with their original personality, of course.** **In the cover pic, you can see my version of FemShep (at least for this installment). It's unfinished because there are details I'm still working on**.  
**In this** **story, Shepard's past led her to freelancing mercenary/pirate life, and instead of the reaper threat, she will face other obstacles. She's considerably younger than her official counterpart, that's for plot purposes. Also, I decided to go back to Garrus's younger, hotheaded personality for start, as portrayed in ME1.**

On a sidenote, I keep wondering why I've been ending up with so many dialogues recently...

* * *

Chapter 1. – Prelude

The Nayad gracefully floated into the docking area and settled down without a jolt. Joker plastered his trademark smile of confidence on his face as he turned towards the _de facto_ leader of the group.  
"All set. Easy as pie."  
"I guess I'll soon have to upgrade to a bigger ship if I want to challenge your abilities, Joker."  
Shepard patted him on the shoulder with a satisfied grin. Teaming up with the pilot was one of her best decisions up to date.  
"Good idea! You know what? Let's make it more fun, and steal one. I always wanted to be a pirate when I was a kid…"  
"We can always ask Mordin to get you a peg-leg. Maybe it would even improve your mobility."  
"Cripple jokes… Very funny."  
Shepard grinned and Joker acted like he was offended, but it was all part of their daily routine. In the three years they spent together traveling around space, they grew pretty much inseparable.  
"So, which one should we steal then?"  
Shepard's gaze carefully assessed the limited field of vision in their current position.  
"Found it. Look at that one on our left!"  
"What? That cruiser? But that's turian."  
"Come on, Joker. A human ship would just be boring for you… Unless it's a dreadnought… But I don't think our team is ready for that. Not yet, at least. Wait… Could you fly a dreadnought?"  
"You know, Shepard, I've always admired your ambition."  
"If that's what you want to call it…"  
She pulled Joker's hat right into his face and walked away from the cockpit.  
"Are you planning on visiting her majesty?", he asked from his seat.  
"Of course. I'm gonna make her owe me one."

* * *

Rhea Shepard was born roughly 23 years ago on Earth. To whom, she had no idea. The only thing she ever owned in her life was her name. From day one, it was a game of survival for her; if she won, she lived. She spent half of her younger years in an orphanage, the other half on the streets. At age 15, a fateful meeting changed her life forever.

_It had been raining for two days straight, and the whole gang was holed up in the old, abandoned hotel. The tension rose dramatically with every hour spent inside. Shepard retreated to a dark corner, out of the other's way. She was just as annoyed as anyone else. She silently cursed, and kept thinking about the pathetic situation they were in.  
What the hell was the Gargoyle thinking? A few days ago, a guy showed up at out of nowhere, demanding to speak with the leader. He kept blabbing about some deal long enough for the guards to get bored and send word to the boss. Whatever this worm had up his sleeves, it must have been good, because the Gargoyle gathered the pack right away and ordered them to move to a new location. That's how they ended up in this hellhole and been stuck there ever since._

_On that night, chaos was unleashed. Sometime around midnight someone launched and assault from the outside. A group of well-organized, well-equipped troops against a gang of grumpy and anxious thugs… Anyone could do the math. Shepard sure did, and decided right at that moment that she wasn't about to die or get canned in for whatever that stupid Worm had. She used the tactical advantage of her form and position to sneak away from the heat of the battle and left the building through a window on the far side.  
The only problem with her escape was that she managed to land near a soldier on patrol. The guy was startled by the sudden appearance and attacked her on sight. Shepard knew her way around a brawl, but against an armored, trained soldier she had little to no chance. Her mind was racing to find any possible way to escape when she faltered after she took a punch to the face._

_"For God's sake, Jenkins, what are you doing?"  
The soldier dropped her like a scared child would drop his toy and turned around with a momentum that could have even swept a full-grown man from his feet.  
"She's with the gang, ma'am. She tried to sneak up on me."  
"Pussy."  
Shepard retorted to the soldier's sudden change of heart quite directly as she stood up, spitting the blood from her mouth and wiping it with the back of her hand. She turned in the direction 'Jenkins' was facing and tried to swallow her surprise. From the voice, she knew the person would be a woman, but she was expecting an officer. However, the lady standing a few metres from them was quite different from what she imagined. Tall, slende, and a wearing a labcoat instead of a uniform. She had some kind of grace to her whole presence.  
"I think I can take it from here, Jenkins."  
Even though her tone sounded rather friendly, the soldier saluted and uttered a quick 'Yes, ma'am', then left the scene the fastest he could manage without losing face.  
"Hello there. My name is Dr. Chakwas. Let's take a look at those injuries, shall we?"_

* * *

The streets of Omega weren't a pleasant sight to anyone with a refined taste. Litter, scrap metal, cheap neon lights everywhere; Shepard was certain the whole place was held together by the corruption of its inhabitants. Still, it worked just fine, and it had an 'acquired taste' as she pointed out to the shocked Joker when he first set foot at the station.

The bouncer at Afterlife didn't even bother to look at her as she passed him with a cheerful 'Yo'. She was wearing her civvies with two heavy pistols strapped to her outer thigh, but as expected, nobody cared about those either. In Omega, you don't even go to the bathroom unarmed, and if you get shot in anywhere public, well, then it sucks to be you. End of story.  
She pushed through the crowd of regulars at the bar and headed straight to Aria's perch. The turian guard warned her that the boss had guests but didn't try to stop her, so she went ahead. When upstairs, she instantly spotted the aforementioned 'guests', two armed turians; one them dressed in red and black, and the other one wearing a black and blue armor.  
The batarian guard gave her a nod, which was rather a question than a greeting. She nodded back, not caring to explain her presence and stepped up to the platform, passing the turians standing there casually.

"I'm back. Did you miss me?"  
"I'm busy", Aria scoffed, like usual, her tone transcending as ever.  
"I bet you are. And soon, you'll be even more busy…"  
Shepard took out a datapad from her jacket and tossed it to the asari. When Aria started reading, Sheaprd made herself comfortable on the couch. She took a side-glance at the turians; she named them 'Blue and 'Red' after their gear. Blue had gray colored plates and – what a surprise – blue markings, while Shepard also had a hunch that he was the younger of the two. Not like she knew much about turian aging, it was just a guess, or rather, intuition on her part. The other one, 'Red', had dark brown plates with white markings and all in all, seemed to be more mature in an unexplainable way.  
Her guesses seemed to be spot on, as she saw 'Blue' trying to say something in frustration, but 'Red' hushed him without uttering a word, or at least that's how Shepard interpreted the situation.

Suddenly, Aria jumped up and threw the datapad right at the batarian guard, anger evident in her expression.  
"Care to explain how this information managed to slip by?"  
The batarian was at a loss or words. He had no idea what was going on, but obediently tried to correct his mistake as he pulled up the file and started reading.  
"So, how much do you want?"  
Aria turned back to Shepard, taking her seat again meanwhile. Her expression was back from raging to unimpressed. She was putting on quite the act for her 'guests', and Shepard found the show rather entertaining.  
"T6-FBA couplings."  
"What?"  
"You heard me. I need them for the ship, but it appears that they are not easy to come by. However, someone with your amount of connections… I'm sure you can figure something out."  
Shepard grinned and Aria rolled her eyes.  
"Don't hold your breath."  
From Aria T'Loak, that was as good as a yes, so Shepard didn't want to push her luck any further. She jumped up from the couch, ready to wave a hand when she noticed that Aria was hesitating.  
"Wait. There is something I need to discuss with you."  
At the same moment, the asari turned towards the turians.  
"It'll only take a moment."  
Her tone made it obvious that there was no place for arguing. 'Red' nodded and they took a few steps back, but thanks to the club's loud music, it was more than enough.

"So, what's going on, Aria? Are they trouble?"  
Instead of sitting, they were standing on the platform with their back to the others.  
"No. The one with the brown plates is a Spectre."  
"A Spectre? What's he doing out here?"  
"Just shut up and listen."  
They were both careful to keep their faces on the dancing crowd below.  
"Some Prothean relic was stolen, and their job is to get it back."  
"The Council and their fancy hobbies…"  
"They dug it up recently, so nobody knows anything about it. It could worth a fortune."  
"So I take it we want it too?"  
"_I_ want it… And you're going to get it for me. 50-50."  
"30-70. I have a team to feed."  
"Don't bargain with me, Shepard. We don't have time for that. The person who knows the coordinates is the volu down in Kenzo, Odo Baan."  
"Yeah, I remember him."  
"You're going to head there, get the coordinates and get your ass out of Omega right away. I'll stall Nihlus, but I can't give you more than half an hour."  
"Then let's get on with this."  
"One more thing… This can't be tracked to me."  
"Goes without saying. By the way, plaster up a smile, you look too tense for your guests.  
"Go to hell…"  
Shepard laughed and weaved a hand at Aria without even looking back. While in sight, she used her casual stride, but once she was out of Afterlife she doubled the pace and brought up her omnitool interface.

* * *

"Shepard? Unexpected…"  
"Cut it, Mordin, we don't have time. You know anything about Prothean artifacts?"  
"Sadly, only a little…"  
"That's more than I do. Get your things and meet me on the Nayad in half an hour."  
"What? Half…"  
Mordin's voice died mid-sentence as Shepard disconnected. As much as she loved the salarian, right now she really didn't have time for his ramblings…

Getting to Odo was the easiest and fastest part of the job, making him talk, however, was another business. Of course he didn't want to spit out the coordinates, and getting information without being able to use violence was an excruciating job in a time like this.  
"Look, Odo", Shepard exclaimed with forced composure. "That guy who's going to show up here soon is a Spectre. That mean he has Council foundings… Aaand that means you can get a decent amount of credits from him. Also, I too am going to give you a nice sum of money _after _I have the coordinates, so you can completely forget that I was here."  
"What if I tell the Spectre that I gave you the coordinates?"  
The annoying sound of the volu's breathing was threatening to make her go mad.  
"Then I'll come back here and bring my krogan friend too… And that krogan will be _very_ angry at you… Have you ever seen an angry krogan, Odo? No? Then thank your gods and spit the coordinates out. NOW."  
This proved to be enough of a threat as the volu immediately started working on his omnitool. A few moments later Shepard left the store with the coordinates of the pirates' ship, a new experience in anger management and missing a serious amount of her credits. She was fuming, but right now this was the only way. If Aria was right, and she usually was, that Prothean stuff was worth a lot more than Shepard would've thought at first. She forwarded the information to Joker and headed to the nearest transport hub.

* * *

"All right, everyone on board?"  
"Yup. We already got clearance too."  
Joker was sitting at the helm, as usual, messing around the controls, getting ready for departure.  
"Great. Get everyone up here. I'll give you the info _en route_."  
Shepard took the first available seat. Finally, a little bit of calm… They left Omega right away and if things went as planned, they would have 2 more hours before hitting the target.

She didn't have to wait long for her team to gather, they weren't a big group to begin with. Her regular crew consisted of the following:  
- Jeff 'Joker' Moreau, the cynical helmsman, whose skills at flying ships sometimes seemed almost inhuman.  
- Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, a quarian girl on her pilgrimage; engineer and a natural genius with tech stuff.  
- Grunt, a krogan warrior, bred in a tube as an experiment. Shepard stumbled upon him while she was helping her other krogan friend, Wrex, dealing with 'krogan business'. Since then, Wrex returned to the homeworld, Tuchanka to deal with 'more krogan business'.  
- Jack, a human biotic woman, raised by Cerberus organization as an experiment; resulting in an almost intolerably bitchy attitude, requiring frequent headbutts from Shepard to create order.  
- For the current mission, Shepard also enlisted Mordin Solus, the – not so – retired salarian scientist, who usually ran a clinic on Omega when Shepard wasn't dragging him along the galaxy.

"So, the details are the following: some people dug up a Prothean artifact, other people stole it and now we're going to steal it too. Any questions?"  
"Which organization took it?" Of course, it was Mordin with the details.  
"Sledgehammer."  
"Ah, pirates. Good."  
"Pirates, mercs? What does it matter?" It was Tali's turn to learn something new today.  
"Pirates steal for themselves, mercs do it for someone else." Jack used her usual, uninterested tone. For her, this was evident.  
"Exactly. It is very likely that the whole raid was an opportunistic one. That means they don't know what they have in their hands. Need to find a good buyer. That takes time. If they were mercs, they would already have one, and our chances of recovering the item would drop." It would have been uncharacteristic for Mordin if he settled with anything other than a full explanation.  
"I don't care who they are. I shoot them, they bleed." Grunts trademark chuckle filled the hall with echo.  
"True enough. Also, this is going to be messy." Shepard's posture changed into a serious one. "We are not the only ones after this thing. In fact, we're going to snatch it right from under the nose of a spectre."  
"A spectre?" All of the team expressed a certain amount of surprise, some more, some less.  
"Yup. But don't worry, if we do our job right, no one will know we've been there. And selling the thing won't be our problem either."  
"Aria and her stupid ideas…", sighed Tali. Whenever that woman gave them something to do, it always ended up in a mess.  
"Come on, it will be fun!" Shepard, however, didn't seem to have any care left for problems.

1,5 hours left till contact.


	2. Setback

Chapter 2. – Setback

"All right, here's the plan."  
Shepard and the crew were standing in the moderate-sized hall behind the cockpit, that served as the 'command center' of the frigate.  
"When the target's in sight, we will transmit a distress call with Jack telling we're in immediate need of assistance", she started explaining, but Grunt cut in right at the first part.  
"Why Jack?"  
"Because she's a woman and she's good at playing the damsel in distress." To verify Shepard's statement, Jack innocently batted her eyelashes, though the effect was lost on the krogan.  
Seeing that the explanation didn't quite sink in, Tali decided to join in and simplify things even more.  
"They're pirates, so if they think we are no threat to them, they'll try to attack us instead and take our ship and valuables. We can assume that the crew mostly consists of males, regardless of race. If they know there are women aboard, they're more likely to try."  
"Meh, more shooting, less talking", Grunt snorted, but he also seemed to acknowledge the plan.  
"That's the next step. We can't leave _any_ evidence that points to us, so we have to wipe the ship clean of our presence."  
Shepard paused and looked through her knew, waiting for feedback that everyone understood what it really meant.  
"Tali, you'll deal with their system. Leave it intact; just make sure there's no data on us. Maybe add in some bogus recordings if you feel like."  
"Understood."  
"Jack, you'll help Tali reach the bridge."  
"Tch… Yeah, whatever."  
"Mordin, you'll come with me and Grunt to the cargo hold. Your job is to help us identify the relic. Are we clear?"  
They all nodded in unison before moving back to their posts.

* * *

Everything went according to plan. Infiltrating the pirate ship was easy; even though they were prepared for some resistance, they obviously didn't count on an open assault like the one that Shepard's team hit them with.  
With the element of surprise and coordinated team movements on their side, the infiltration team moved forward smoothly. It was a close-quarters skirmish with limited space and lots of obstacles; the best 'terrain' for the group. They easily took care of all the enemies with pistols and shotguns, boosting the tactic with biotics here and there.  
In ambushes like that they were almost undefeatable. However, Shepard's crew lacked expertise in one significant aspect: long range. They could perfectly cover close to mid-range, but they had no sniper on the team. For now, it didn't matter, but Shepard was well aware that this weakness could be exploited anytime.

While Mordin kept looking for the Prothean relics, she ordered Grunt to check the other areas and get rid of any 'threat'. It wasn't the first job that she had to make a decision like that, but acting _sine missione _still left a bitter taste in her throat.  
"They're just scum, damn it… They knew what they signed on for…", she murmured to herself as she slightly trembled when she heard the shotgun firing close by.

Soon they found a crate with something that looked ancient enough to be the relic. After Tali confirmed that their presence was completely removed from the ship's systems, they all headed back to the Nayad and left for Omega. Taking the Prothean artifact or whatsoever back there was risky, but their job was to obtain it and nothing more. Shepard decided that Aria could take the rest from there. After all, she wanted 50% of the money. For that much, she'd better make herself useful…

* * *

Garrus was silently fuming as he followed after Nihlus on the streets of Omega. He spent all his life in Citadel-space, so setting foot in the Terminus Systems was quite a shock for him at first. He was well aware that crime was flowing even under the watchful eyes of the Council, but that was on a completely different level.  
His father worked at C-Sec in a high position, so he had a good understanding of how things worked there. Garrus was expected to follow in his footsteps after his military training, but that was exactly what he tried to avoid at all costs. He felt constricted and annoyed by the illogical amount of rules he was supposed to abide by. On the other hand, he admired the work of Spectres; elite agents specifically chosen by the Council. They were allowed to act as they saw fit as long as it served the mission. They also had a high-level security clearance by default, making investigations a lot easier.

He had been following Nihlus around for some time now as his 'trainee', and Garrus felt content watching as the suspects and witnesses were taken aback whenever his Spectre status was revealed. They either respected his authority or were intimidated by it, but eventually they all ended up with their heads bowed down.  
Naturally, not all of them surrendered at first sight, but chasing the culprits around was just as much fun. Garrus was a talented sniper, so his position often allowed him to watch the whole cat and mouse game from the best spot. His hotheadedness, however, often earned him reprimands from his tutor.

Unlike Garrus, Nihlus was already past the 'heroic' period of his lifetime. He was a great shot and a terrific strategist, also blessed with a silver tongue. Working as a Spectre left him with a considerable amount of valuable experience, sharpening his instincts and intuition. Surprisingly, his attitude was rather nonchalant and he kept his cool even in the toughest situations. There was, however, one significant match in their personalities; both Garrus and Nihlus had the mentality of climbing back in through the window if they were kicked out through the door.

* * *

The volus seemed to be more self-confident than his kind usually was, and this fueled Garrus's annoyance even more. Odo Baan was practically a nobody sitting on a pile of junk metal, but he still had the nerve to charge credits for his information. If it was Garrus calling the shots, he would have already been holding a gun to the annoying creature's head, but Nihlus seemed to have other plans.  
"You're right, I work for the Council. But the truth is, getting to you through all these 'informants' had already depleted my credit chit, so I was hoping we could get to a different kind of agreement…"  
"No credits, no coordinates."  
Odo Baan tried to cross his arms as much as his barrel-like form allowed. His attitude seemed abnormal, even if this was indeed Omega. Nihlus, however, just stood there, smiling patiently.  
"Understandable, but let me tell you something. I don't give you credits and you don't give me the information; this means nobody gains anything. However, if you decide to give me what I need, I can give back the Council what they want. They really want that thing… I'm pretty sure they'll be _very_ grateful if we can help them obtain it."  
While talking, he kept gesturing with his hands casually, like it was just a friendly chatter between friends. Odo listened carefully, and it was evident that he was struggling with the answer. After a few seconds of nervous breathing, he finally broke.  
"All right, Spectre. I'll give you what you need."

* * *

Nihlus seemed to be an awfully good mood as he casually strode through the streets of Omega.  
"Why did you lie to him? Wouldn't it have been faster if we just threatened him?"  
Garrus was still confused about the events with the volus.  
"I said that the Council would be grateful. I never said that their gratefulness would include credits."  
"But we aren't broke, are we?"  
"No, not at all. I just didn't feel like giving money to him."  
He looked at Garrus, grinning. The kid still had a long way to go…

* * *

"Sir! There is no response from the ship!"  
Nihlus quietly hummed as he scratched one of his mandibles. He was standing at the helm aboard the turian cruiser Evonax. The ship and the crew were under his command as a Spectre.  
"We're going in."  
The situation was unusual. He didn't expect the outlaws to cooperate, but he was still prepared for some resistance; verbal threats, activated weapon systems, warning shots or even a head-on assault… But there was absolutely nothing.  
His team lined up at the airlock as the helmsman skillfully maneuvered the cruiser into position. They were prepared for almost anything; ambush, boobytraps, mechs… but not for what actually awaited them on board.

The place was silent, the only noise they could hear was the machinery. They found the first body right after passing the first corner: a batarian leaning against the wall in a sitting position, wearing scavenged, mismatched armor. He was either a pirate or a merc; it didn't really matter now. His torso was torn apart by multiple shots, most likely from close range.  
"Surprise attack", growled Garrus as he leaned in closer to examine the wounds.  
"Looks like somebody got here before us."  
Nihlus kept his act calm, but inwardly he cursed. He had to hope that whoever beat them to it had no idea about the 'special' cargo.  
"Doctor T'Soni, I would like you to come with me and search the ship for the relic. If the attackers didn't know about it, they might as well missed it."  
A young asari with a frightened expression came forward, staring at the body in distress before nodding faintly.  
"Garrus, take whoever you want and get to the bridge. I want to know how much you can dig up from the data."  
Garrus jumped without hesitation. He pulled up the interface on his omnitool, pushed in a few commands and left with another squad member right away.

* * *

As Nihlus's team methodically searched the ship, Garrus was trying his best to get his hands on some useful information. His blue eyes intently scanned through the seemingly endless lines of data. He huffed in annoyance from time to time. At first, he thought it was just the system protecting itself from outside influence, maybe a particularly well-programmed VI, but soon it became evident that something was amiss.  
"Nihlus, something's not right."  
His voice echoed with excitement on the radio.  
"Well… can you tell me what that _something_ actually is?"  
The Spectre's tone carried a hint of frustration. All of the cargo seemed intact, but there was no sign of the Prothean artifact anywhere.  
"There is a certain amount of data that's missing. I can tell you everything about these pirates, but nothing about their attackers."  
"What?"  
"Someone wiped the system clean from data for one exact period: from about 3 hours ago to our arrival. Well, our communication efforts are already here…"  
There was a moment of tense silence.  
"Garrus, is it possible that we got the wrong ship?"  
"Negative. As I said, I can trace everything about this ship; where it came from and where it was headed, the whole flight path actually. The relic has to be on this ship, unless..."  
Nihlus sighed. It was pretty obvious they were back to square one, but still, he needed to be sure.  
"So, where was the relic supposed to be?"  
"Just a sec… It should be down in the cargo hold with all the other stuff. They had no idea what it really was. Look for a massive white crate with an orange logo."  
"It's not here."  
"You sure?"  
"Yeah. Let's get back to our ship."  
"What are we going to do now?"  
"Right now, I'm thinking about paying another visit to Aria. Maybe she knows more than she cared to discuss…"  
"I hate to have to say this… but that's exactly what I told you back then."  
There was no answer, but the quiet spoke better than words. Nihlus was pissed off. Usually, he preferred to keep his 'Spectre' act civilized, but when people started getting in his way, he stopped playing nice.

This was a huge setback on their mission, but right now Garrus didn't mind going back to Omega at all. He was aching to show all those arrogant bastards what Spectres – or their trainees – were really capable of.

* * *

Around the same time, many triggers were pulled on Omega. One of them belonged to a gun pointed at Odo Baan.


	3. Encounter

**AN:** **There is a brawl/fihgting scene in this chapter**. **I also mention the usual music of The Afterlife being changed at that point.**  
**I wrote that part listening to Blue Stahli. If you like reading with background music, I mostly recommend the following tracks: Anti You, ULTRAnumb, Takedown. I think they fit well with the scene and they gave me lots of inspiration.  
Press play after this line: '**In the next moment, the music started again,**'**

* * *

Chaper 3 – Encounter

The Afterlife was crowded with all kinds of aliens; it was the rush-hour for clubs. Shepard and co. arrived about an hour ago, just in time to claim one of the few remaining tables as their own. Mordin politely declined the invitation for a drink in favor of his clinic, but aside him all the regular team was there. They even dragged Joker away from the ship. Now he was squeezed between Jack and Tali with the very likely purpose of serving as a lightning rod in the near future.  
Shepard was sitting at the edge, right next to Tali and just opposite to Grunt. She usually chose that spot because she mostly kept shuttling between different points of interest; their table, Aria's perch, the bar, the dance floor…  
Her position was perfect for spying on the entrance. On the outside, they looked just like all the other mismatched companies scattered around, but tonight, they were on alert.

* * *

After taking the Prothean relic from the pirate ship, they headed straight back to Omega. Aria totally lost it when Shepard casually notified her about the package waiting at the docks.  
"What? You thought I'd keep dragging it around in _my_ ship until _your_ Spectre lost interest?"  
Aria grunted, but didn't say anything. Instead she started massaging her temples and Shepard could already tell that she was mumbling something about 'incompetent fools' to herself. After their little conference, Shepard moved the team into the club to wait for the next step.

She knew the turians could arrive at any moment, but she didn't really bother. They would go straight to Aria, and she had no doubt about her acting skills. As she stood up to get a refill for her drink, she heard a strange, whistling sound. She turned her head and saw that it was Grizz, one of Aria's turian bodyguards, cutting a way through the crowd.  
Shepard took a step back to get out of people's way and waited for him there. When the turian finally reached her, she greeted him with a casual wave and a simple 'Yo'.  
"Shepard, got moment?"  
"Mhm."  
The music kept muffling their voice, so they ended up standing close to each other, Grizz leaning towards her ear. Back at the table, Jack jumped up excitedly and immediately started taking bets on the guy's intent.

"Aria says that things have been taken care of, and she warns you not to be such an 'imbecile' next time."  
"How long did it take her to think up that word?"  
They both started grinning. This was usual routine. Aria put on shows like that quite regularly; it was her daily fix of megalomania.  
"What should we do about the volus?", Shepard asked with her head tilted to the side. Oda Baan was the most dangerous loose end at the moment.  
"It's already been taken care of."  
There was a hint of contentment in the turian's voice as he slightly patted his sidearm.  
"Good. The next act is already starting."  
Shepard used her eyes to direct his gaze at the entrance of the club. The two armored and armed turian had just entered, but they were already on their way towards Aria.  
"Go. Her majesty might need her knights soon."  
Grizz grunted and Shepard laughed. Her gaze traced back once more to the two newcomers. This time, her deep dark eyes met with vivid blue ones.

* * *

Garrus burned with anticipation as they set foot on Omega once again. He knew things would be different now. Nihlus tried to hide it, but Garrus knew from his gestures that he too was impatient. Someone must have set them up and there weren't many possibilities.

They headed for the volus first, although Nihlus suspected that Odo Baan was not important enough to be spared as a loose end. His intuition worked perfectly; the only thing they found was the dead body in a pool of blood. Whoever did this, they didn't even try to hide the fact that this was an execution; the corpse was torn from multiple shots, and instead of aiming for the vital parts, the killer simply made a strainer out of the late Odo.  
This was a message. Apparently, the volus said too much. They needed to figure out who else he talked to.

It was easy to decide where to start; the only other person _they_ talked to was no one else but the Queen of Omega.

* * *

There was a long que of 'would be' customers pressing in a makeshift line at the entrance of the Afterlife. They kept pushing and cursing, but the establishment was already working at full capacity.  
Luckily, Nihlus didn't feel like playing nice that night. He cut through the crowd in an unstoppable stride with Garrus right at his heel. Some people hissed or growled at them, but they knew better to try to stand in their way.  
When the elcor bouncer tried to voice his displeasure in his own, ponderous way, they simply passed him without giving a damn. Seeing their aggressive advancement, the other bouncers appeared from the sidelines. The turians raised their weapons as an answer, and Nihlus started talking in a warning tone.  
"I have business with Aria. Feel free to try to stop me; let's see how well you do against a Spectre."  
The turian and the batarian stood there, confused, looking at each other for support. After a few moments, they both lowered their weapons.  
Garrus was pleased to see that even if their authority didn't, Spectre reputation still reached the Terminus Systems.

As it was predictable from the line outside, the club was practically flooded with the residents of Omega. They paused for a moment, assessing the situation, looking for potential threats. After all, this was Aria's den, likely to be filled with her pawns.  
Garrus let his gaze travel through the left side, searching for any sign of danger. For a normal person, it would've been hard to differentiate between people with all the shadows and flashing lights, but Garrus was different. His vision was trained to be his strongest sense. As he turned his eyes towards the gallery, he spotted a familiar figure standing there. He realized that the human female was already staring at him. Her gaze told Garrus that without a doubt, she recognized him. He found this surprising; humans usually found it hard to tell turians apart.

They held each other's stare until Nihlus slightly elbowed him. Confused, Garrus jerked his head in his direction, but his mentor was already on his way towards their target. Damn. He was caught 'catching flies' and wasn't he embarrassed about it... He silently cursed as he set out to follow the Spectre.

* * *

Aria was well aware from the very first moment that the Spectre was going to cause trouble, but now that the mercs allied themselves against her, she desperately needed a little extra cash. Ruling Omega had its ups and downs, but she insisted on keeping her throne. To do so, she had to be daring enough and take risks at certain points.  
She didn't expect, however, that the polite and laidback Spectre Nihlus could lose his temper from getting some ancient trinket or whatsoever snatched out of his hand.  
Aria had to try really hard to keep her contemptuous expression plastered on her face as her batarian bodyguard was trashed aside like a ragdoll. She usually refrained from using her biotics in her own territory as it was a clear sign of acknowledging threat. Now, Nihlus was just a step away, pointing a finger at her. The situation was really close to getting out of hand… Where the hell was Shepard?

* * *

Rhea Shepard kept watching the show from under the shadow of a pillar. She found the struggle quite entertaining, even though she knew well that Aria would be fuming from anger for at least a week. Well, sometimes she needed to be taught a lesson or two, just to keep her queen-complex in check. When things started to look ugly, Shepard finally decided to join in.  
She walked up the stairs casually with her hands in her pockets. Her presence went unnoticed until she reached the last step and started speaking.

"Aria are you having an event or something?"  
"Pick a number, Shepard. I'm busy."  
Of course, the ruler of Omega would never ask for her help openly. There was no need to, Rhea knew exactly what she needed to do. She would provoke them and take the pressure off of Aria, have a little fight if necessary.  
It's not like she respected her leadership skills, but Shepard was smart enough to see the bigger picture. The chaos of Omega had its own order deep down inside, and that order depended on the balance of the major factions. Aria was a necessary player in the game, and right now she couldn't afford to lose face to anyone, especially not to an outsider.

"Aw, come on… I've been bored all day, let me have some fun."  
With her hands still in her pockets Shepard set her legs apart, stamping her right foot against the ground a little bit heavier than the left.  
She didn't seem like a menacing opponent. Her height was around average for a human female; 5,6 ft or roughly 170 cm. Her form seemed adequately feminine, although it was mostly hidden by her not-so-girly clothing. Her long boots, however, highlighted her shapely legs, especially her thighs with her sidearms strapped on…

Garrus wasn't impressed by the redhead's repeated appearance. He didn't like her arrogance and the way she walked; like she owned the place. He didn't like humans as a whole either, to be precise. Their self-importance and fickleness usually annoyed him to no end.  
He stepped forward to block the female's movements. She gave him a glance and a cocky grin, but ignored his efforts to stop her completely. Garrus had no patience to ask nicely. He went after her, grabbed her arm and yanked her back forcefully.  
"Leave. Now."  
His tone was grim and a deep, a low growl followed his words. The human flashed another grin at him, her small, sharp canines shining in the dim light.  
"You know, _Blue_, I love bar fights… "  
Her dark eyes stared into his, her gaze predatory. Her small tongue darted out, licking her upper lips absently.  
"But we'll do it on the ground floor."  
The music stopped.

* * *

For a second, there was silence.  
In the next moment, the music started again, but this time, it was something completely different. It was strong, vivid, loud… it was real.

In an instant, Shepard twisted her arm out of the turian's grasp. She yanked it back, stretching far behind her body. Her fingers twitched, and right then she was already swinging it forward with full force.

Garrus was hit in the chest, but the human didn't let go of him to watch him fly; the movements of her legs followed up, sweeping him a few feet back before her body turned sideways to lose momentum. She slowed herself using her feet and her altered posture, Garrus, however was helpless against the searing energy that sent him flying over the ledge.  
He landed on top of the circular center section, almost crushing into an asari dancer. The girl jumped out of his way with a scream of a banshee.

"Don't you dare go and trash this place, Shepard!"  
Aria's angry screech rivaled the scared dancer's. She didn't think Shepard would go and do something flashy like that. She wanted to keep this 'issue' as low-profile as possible.  
The only answer was another grin from said human. She was practically blazing with energy. That damn woman was born to be a troublemaker. She stepped up to the railing, giving a half-salute, half-wave to the shocked observers and jumped after her target.  
Well, she certainly achieved one thing: the Spectre gave up on quizzing Aria about the relic. Instead, he stepped forward with arms crossed, waiting for the show to continue between his pupil and the human.

* * *

Shepard was what the Alliance military referred to as 'Vanguard'; a soldier best suited for close combat, with a combination of weaponry and powerful offensive biotic attacks.  
Thanks to her past, she knew a thing or two about brawls and hand-to-hand combat, and didn't refrain from getting into fights where she could use them to her advantage.

She used her biotics to power up her jump, landing gracefully only a few feet away from Garrus. The turian was already standing. His sparkling blue eyes were burning with rage. He made a mistake when he underestimated the human. He wouldn't do it again.  
He reached for the clasps of his chest armor; that thing was too heavy and too rigid, even if it served well against her first attack. He also unfastened his shoulderguards; he needed mobility. After he finished getting rid of the unnecessary parts, he kicked them off of the platform.

Shepard smiled as she watched. With a shrug, she decided to follow suit and tossed her jacket and pistols away.  
"Don't worry, _Blue_, no more biotics. I just needed you to be at the right place."  
"As if I care…", he spat the words angrily. "Just go on and use your little tricks, human, because without them, you've already lost."  
She laughed. Garrus knew she wasn't laughing at him but at his words. Still, it annoyed him way too much.  
"Your head is just as thick as it looks, huh?"  
She licked her lips, again, and she didn't even seem to notice. She was truly enjoying this…

Garrus hesitated at first. Should he take the initiative and try to knock her off of her feet, or should he wait for her to come at him?  
In the end, he didn't have a choice. Shepard charged at him quickly, jumping high into the air and aiming for his shoulders with her knee. Instead of dodging, he easily parried with his arms. This was too easy… Why did she do something so obvious?  
Before he could really contemplate her movements, however, she was back at him again. She didn't use much force, instead, she kept launching light but fast offensives, as if she was testing his reflexes. It didn't take him much time to figure out her strategy, but whenever he managed to get a hold on her, she slipped from his grasp.  
They traded a few blows, but neither of them managed to score a serious hit. After some suspiciously well-aimed attacks, Garrus realized that the human wasn't just fighting a random opponent; she was knowingly sparring with a _turian_. She didn't aim for spots she would if she was brawling with her own kind; all the places she launched serious attacks were weak spots of _his_ kind. The other, seemingly half-hearted swings were distractions.

"Come on Shepard, kick his ass!"  
A sharp, husky female voice sounded from below. They both glanced sideways for a second, only to see a huge crowd gathered around, cheering excitedly for both of them.  
"What? You're my cheerleader now?"  
"Fuck you!"  
Both women laughed, and the one called 'Shepard' popped her head right and left. Garrus now remembered that Aria called her something similar, but he hadn't paid attention back then.

After the short pause, they were at each other's throat again. The narrow catwalk kept the turian at a disadvantage, and he grew tired of playing. The next time he managed to grab the human's arm, he didn't try to lock her movements like he did before. This time, he pushed her towards the edge with as much force as he could, planning to take the fight to the ground.  
Shepard faltered a little, but quickly realized that she was just about to lose her footing. Instead of falling, she used the edge as leverage for a backflip. She landed on her feet gracefully, closing her act with a small curtsey to the crowd. She had to cut it short, however, because Garrus was already down and heading her way…

For every successful hit, there were at least two dodged, parried or evaded. They were really tiring each other out. Shepard had to look out for the turian's strength and long limbs, while at the same time, Garrus had to stay aware of the human's agility and fluid movements.  
Finally, he managed to get a strong grip on her hood, but before he could appreciate his catch, she'd already slipped out of it. It was almost scary how much and fast she could contort her body if she needed to.

* * *

They were both nearing exhaustion when the sound of gunshot caused an instinctive stop in their movements. Heavily panting, they jerked their heads upwards at the same time. Aria stood at the railing of her beloved balcony with a gun pointed towards the ceiling.  
"That's enough. You can continue outside, for all I care, but you'll stop tearing this place apart right now. Understood?."  
Shepard and Garrus looked at each other first, checking if the other still posed a threat. When none of them moved to continue, the queen of Omega took the gesture as a 'yes' and disappeared from sight.  
The music stopped again and the crowd filled the air with whispers. A quarian walked into the space between them, carrying Shepard's jacket and twin pistols.  
"Satisfied?"  
Her tone reminded Garrus of a mother lecturing her rebellious child.  
"Good enough for a first round.", Shepard said seemingly unamused.  
The turian scoffed. He knew that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't mask her heavy breathing, her reddened cheeks or the sweat sparkling at her temples.

The crowd had already disbanded, the three of them were the only ones left standing there. Shepard stretched and popped her shoulders, then took a few casual steps towards the turian and bent down to pick up her discarded hoodie.  
"Don't worry, _Blue_, I had lots of fun."  
He huffed in annoyance, but he couldn't keep his gaze from wandering to her backside. Humans were all… squishy… He shook his head as he pulled up the mental note of why he didn't like this species. Adding 'Shepard' seemed like a good idea.  
"Why do you keep calling me _Blue_?"  
He really wanted to avoid asking it, because he was damn sure she kept saying it on purpose to annoy him. His curiosity got the better of him eventually.  
"Why not? It's easy to remember."  
With her stuff collected, Shepard was ready to leave. She tried to suppress a grin as she heard his question; she expected it a lot earlier.  
"That's not my name."  
He absolutely had no idea why he kept arguing with this woman. It's not like he wished to make formal introductions, but the way she casually 'labeled' him like that was irritating.  
"Whatever."  
With her back already turned towards him, coat hanging around her shoulder, she gave him some stupid mixture of a wave and a salute as she walked away.


	4. Aftershock

Chapter 4 – Aftershock

The storm at the Afterlife passed just as fast as it appeared. With the ice and the tension broken by Shepard's flashy appearance, the discussion reopened between Aria and Nihlus on much calmer terms.  
Garrus kept standing on the sidelines; still dumbfounded from his fight with the human. He wanted to be angry about it, but found that he didn't really possess the steam to do so anymore. Right now he was no better than a grumpy child. He really wanted to beat her… He didn't ache for hurting her physically; no, he wasn't that type of person, all he wished for was to see her defeated.  
The assertiveness of that woman made his skin itch just by thinking about it. She looked so vulnerable with her – from a turian's viewpoint – small and fragile body, covered in all those layers of clothes, trying to hide the fact that she had nothing to protect herself with… Yet she managed to land some solid punches on him, even his plates couldn't completely stifle them. The thought that she must have bruised her knuckles quite a bit to do so made him feel a little tingle of smugness.

The 'conference' came to end relatively quickly after all the ruckus. Garrus had no idea what the other two had agreed on as he distinctively kept to himself, silently admitting his disgrace of not being able to wipe the floor with that damn human. He obediently followed behind Nihlus as they left the place, unsure about his mentor's feelings of the events of the night.

* * *

"It was quite the show you two had put on…"  
Nihlus leisurely leaned back against his seat. They were in his office/cabin back at their ship, the Evonax. Garrus just stood there, with his head bowed, giving muffled sounds of frustration.  
"Oh come on, don't be such a stick in the mud. Honestly, you seemed like you were really enjoying your bout with the girl…"  
Nihlus's chuckle was easygoing, showing that he was really enjoying himself and wasn't trying to be sarcastic. His jauntiness made Garrus relax a bittle. A grimace appeared on his face… Enjoying something like that? With a worthy opponent; yes, very likely. But with someone like that human? Doubtful.  
"I could've beaten that human."  
For a moment, Nihlus stared at him in silence, his gaze sharp, his expression stiff.  
"Yes, that's true. Most likely you could've beaten _her_ if you had another 5 minutes or so. But what does it matter?" He paused for a second, weighing his next words carefully. "I'm not your father, Garrus. You don't have to prove yourself each and every time something comes up."  
The young turian was shocked. His mandibles flew open and his mind desperately reached for something to say, but words failed him, so he just shut his mouth closed.  
"You don't have to stand at attention every moment. You have to find your own way, your own opinion. You're free to relax and enjoy the little things life throws at your way." Nihlus sighed. He didn't like giving a sermon, but the worst part was over. A new smile appeared on his face as his mandibles slightly opened. "And at least be honest with yourself."  
If Garrus was human, he would very likely to be madly blushing at that moment. He didn't want to admit it at first, but the Spectre's words felt right. Actually, their fight really was enjoyable… That woman gave him quite a challenge with her constant jumping and twisting.

The realization suddenly hit him. When did he start thinking of her as 'woman' instead of 'human'? Had he been deliberately pushing himself to keep his scorn towards her?  
"You're right, it was fun… But it still would've been better if I had defeated her. Being all that 'high and mighty' over nothing..."  
Nihlus laughed again, this time it was a full, whole-hearted laugh.  
"Well, you're one of a kind then, huh?"  
"Don't say that!", Garrus scoffed, but Nihlus still found the whole situation rather entertaining.  
"So, what was her name again?", the Spectre started thinking, tapping his mandibles with a finger.  
"Shepard."  
"Is that a first, or a last name?"  
"How the hell am I supposed to know?"

* * *

"Hey!"  
Shepard hissed as Mordin prodded her fist and knuckles.  
"No sign of fractures. Slightly bruised. Will heal in a few days. What happened?"  
Shepard pulled her inspected hand away and elbowed backwards, earning a loud popping sound from her shoulder.  
"Turian.", she shrugged. "Didn't manage to land every hit at the right place."  
"Ah, I see. Do you need further research on turian anatomy for future reference?"  
"Ugh… You just made that sound really wrong, Mordin…"  
"Sorry. Wasn't my intention."  
Shepard sighed. Her favourite salarian was quite easy to misunderstand at certain times. If he was human, he would most likely to be around 'grandpa' age, yet he still kept bouncing around like he was just a five-year-old.  
"My aim wasn't the problem. His guard was."  
"Hm, yes... Theory and practice can differ greatly in certain circumstances. But this event resulted in valuable experience, I presume."  
"You could say that."

Her omnitool pinged. Still sitting on the sickbed at Solus's clinic, she pulled up the interface as the salarian doctor moved aside to give his attention to other pressing matters.  
It was a message from Aria. She managed to strike a deal with the turians. She promised them that she would shake her contacts up and see if the relic pops up inside or outside the Terminus Systems, and commanded Shepard to report if she hears anything interesting.  
Naturally, this was all an act; messages could be intercepted and omnitools could be hacked. If such thing happened, everything had to look nice and clean. Besides, she never worked directly under Aria; they simply cooperated when their interests collided.

She thanked Mordin for the check-up and left the clinic. Grunt was waiting for her at the entrance, the others had already returned to the Nayad after the incident at The Afterlife. The krogan was more than enough for a 'bodyguard'.  
"That turian was kicking your ass. Why didn't you use your biotics?", he grumbled as he kept munching on some kind of suspicious looking snack.  
"It had to be a fair fight", she shrugged. The guy was already bitching about it after one strike. Turians…  
"It's not a fair fight if you don't go all-out." A trademark krogan belch followed his words.  
"It was just a distraction. I didn't mean to kill him." She realized that she was already growing tired of the topic. She was also aware that if they kept things going, she would have easily ended up on the losing side, and it didn't do much good for her ego.  
"Where's the fun in that?"  
"At the part when you wipe that 'smartass' expression off of their face with your first hit."  
Grunt chuckled, and they left it at that.

* * *

Garrus stared at the datapad with a scowl. The room was dark and his plated face was bathed in eerie shadows from the dim light of the electronic device. He slid his finger across the screen to pull up the next file, but there was none.

Nihlus sent him the data about ten minutes ago and at first Garrus had no idea what it was. After looking into it, he grew frustrated… His mentor used his Spectre authority to dig up files on Shepard and then sent them to him like he requested it. He angrily typed in 'not interested' as a reply and threw the thing to other side of the bed.  
Minutes passed, and there was no answer. The datapad lay just out of reach, and Garrus soon found that his gaze kept returning to the damned thing. After some hesitation, he finally gave in to his curiosity.

Apparently, this 'Shepard' was more like a phantom than a person. The Alliance had almost nothing on her and even her official Citadel registry was missing information. The data available was still enough for routine identification, thus allowing the human and her ship free passage and docking in most of Citadel-space.  
Garrus's eyes suddenly grew wild. There was also a moderate-level security clearance attached to her files; with her background, or more precisely the lack of it, this shouldn't have been possible. Well, it wasn't much above the normal civilian pass, so it was unlikely that anyone would find it suspicious during a casual investigation.

This was strange. It wasn't impossible to break into the system and wipe files clean, but it wasn't something that a random merc could do either. Garrus himself couldn't do it even though he was better than average with tech stuff. Mysteriously disappearing data… Just like on the pirate ship. Then it suddenly hit him.

The time frame of the deleted data made them an unlikely culprit as Shepard was supposed to be on Omega right in the middle of that period. However, she wasn't alone. If she knew someone who could have invaded one of the most protected databanks in the galaxy, messing up the logs of a simple ship couldn't have been a problem for them. Then he remembered the quarian… Putting the morale of racial stereotypes aside, those scavengers were really nimble-fingered when it came to electronics.  
It was very likely that she had other friends though… Also, she possessed her own ship. With a good team and a surprise attack it would definitely have been possible…

He threw the datapad again, jumping to his feet with newfound determination. He marched towards Nihlus's cabin with such momentum that he almost knocked some unlucky crew members off of their feet.

* * *

"Yes, very likely."  
Nihlus nodded as he calmly sipped his drink. He didn't seem surprised when the younger turian proposed his theory.  
"Aren't you gonna do something about it?"  
Garrus just stood there, his mandibles slightly twitching from irritation.  
"Can you prove it?"  
"No, but it's obvious…"  
Garrus just understood that the Spectre knew all along. Of course he would… But why wasn't he doing anything about it? Nihlus sighed, and signaled him to take a seat.

"Omega is not the Citadel. You can't barge in without thinking, knowing that C-Sec will clean up the mess if things go wrong. People don't care about your status either. The only rank you have in the Terminus is what you earn for yourself, and it doesn't matter at all if you can't hold onto it."  
Nihlus scratched the back of his head while he tried to figure out how to make the kid understand. He really didn't like giving speeches like this, but right now it seemed necessary.  
"Aria's rule isn't absolute either. If she leaves an opening, someone will rise and drag her down as soon as possible. I've been doing my research in these past days. The gangs on Omega started conspiring, and of course, that woman also knows about this. She needs to strengthen her position…"  
He paused for a moment, waiting for the information to sink in.  
"So she stole the relic because of that?"  
"I think so. But she won't keep it, she has no use for something like that. What she needs is a good supply of credits. As soon as the thing is out of her hands, she'll point me in the direction of the buyer. At least that's what I think."  
"But won't that lead us back to her?"  
"She's smarter than that. The only reason we know this much right now is because she had to hurry. If I'm correct, she found out about the '_coup_' exactly when we first gave her a visit."  
"Shepard!"  
Nihlus nodded. Garrus finally started to see the big picture. The kid was sharp, but lacked the necessary experience to understand how the world worked.

"But why not search the station in the first place? That woman's problems are not our concern."  
"Because we're outsiders. If we started a fight, Aria could've rallied the population saying that the Council is trying to wage war on them. If that was the situation, even the mercs would have to work together to keep their independence from the Citadel."  
Garrus sighed in resignation. Now he understood how foolish he was. His childish ideals about Spectres kept getting in the way of seeing the truth.  
"You're right. Sorry for being stubborn."  
"No problem." Nihlus gave a cheerful laugh. "You're here to learn stuff. If now you understand something that you haven't before, then I'm doing my job well."  
Garrus grimaced at his words.  
"What are you going to tell the Council?"  
"The Council? Well… they're busy people… let's not bore them with all the unnecessary details. For now, we don't have the relic. I'll make sure to notify them as soon as we do."

* * *

_He kept tapping at the glass wall impatiently. He hated prison, and he had been stuck there for years because of that little bitch. No, he shouldn't have been thinking about that right now. He had more important things to do._  
_How much longer till he was free? A minute? Five minutes? Ten? An hour? Actually, it didn't really matter, because things were already set in motion. Ha just had to wait a little more…_


	5. Enemies and friends

Chapter 5 – Enemies and friends

The two turians slowly circled each other, two sets of piercing blue eyes locked into a predatory stare. The female moved first; she was quick and agile, but still, the male blocked her attack like he predicted the strike. They had been at it for quite some time, but none of them showed signs of exhaustion.

Garrus usually enjoyed bouts like this, but now it just felt out of place. It seemed theatrical, the way they moved, without the intent of actually hurting the other. It was nothing but a physical exercise; well-known techniques met well-practiced moves with moderate effort.  
This wasn't a fight. It didn't smell and certainly didn't feel like one. Actually, it was pretty much like eating tasteless food. You did it because you were hungry, but gained no pleasure from it and kept dreaming about all the delicious meals you were missing.

It was all that woman's fault. Their unfinished brawl made Garrus feel like he was missing out on something. He was sure he was just about to beat the human, but still, it couldn't compare to actually doing it. He wanted to push her to the ground and watch her smug expression change as she accepts defeat.  
He had absolutely no idea why it bothered him so much, but Nihlus was right; he enjoyed that fight. It was real… Real anger and real hits, a battle with real stakes. How long it had been since he had one of those? He practiced regularly, but it wasn't the same. On the field, he took down most of his enemies with a rifle, and even if it came to close quarters, those guys were no match for him.  
However, if Shepard was to actually use her biotics in a fight, he wasn't sure he could win. This frustrated and excited him at the same time. In an all-out fight, he had no idea which one of them would bite the dust, and this almost never happened. His best guess was 50-50.

A kick to his side dragged him back to reality from his daydreams. It actually hurt. His training partner must have realized he was gazing off and most likely took it as an offense.  
Garrus gave a quiet growl as he popped his shoulders to get his head back to the game. He was bored… He wanted to get over with it. In a few minutes, the girl was pinned under him, with her arms and legs locked, completely unable to move.  
"You still need to work on your guard, Cassia. Your left leg is your weak spot."

Garrus moved, preparing to stand up, but a hand clutching his arm held him back.  
"Maybe you could help me figure it out."  
Usually, those icy blue eyes looked mesmerizing, but right now Garrus only wished to get further away from their grip.  
"Another time, maybe."  
He tugged lightly on his arm, but the girl still didn't let him go.  
"You've been acting strange. Something on your mind?"  
Well, of course there was, but he couldn't admit something like that.  
"Nothing important. Just work stuff."  
Cassia's gaze sharpened.  
"I hope you're not chasing the asari's ass…"  
"What?" He was honestly shocked. Why the hell did she assume something like that? He shook his head. "I don't want to have anything to do with Dr. T'soni."  
This was really starting to get ridiculous. His relationship with the turian woman wasn't exactly professional, but it happened only once, and definitely was a 'no strings attached' type of thing.

"What about me? Maybe I can help you get your thoughts together, hm?"  
Now he started to see where this whole sparring idea was going from the start, but he wasn't in the mood. With turian standards, this female was practically a jackpot in the looks department, but on the whole, she had never managed to move anything inside Garrus except his obvious needs. Her arrogance reminded him too much of his father, and she seemed to lack the spark that could light his world on fire.  
"Not now, Cassia."  
He finally managed to free his arm without being rough. It was just about time… He needed to get out of this place.

* * *

That night, when he went to sleep, he had a dream that managed to confuse his already shaken little world even more.

He was sparring with Shepard, but finally, he forced her to the ground. She lay there under him, her arms pinned to her side, her dark eyes wide open and her red hair brushing her shoulders.  
He was waiting for this moment, the look of defeat on her face… But it wasn't there… Instead, she wore that cocky smile she had already showed him. When she spoke, it wasn't curses or threats; it was the exact same thing Cassia told him that day, but from Shepard's mouth, it had a whole other effect on him…

Before he could do anything, he was shaken from his dream by the alarm he set on his omnitool. He silenced the damn thing, and then fell back to his bed. The room was still covered in darkness and he kept staring at the ceiling, like the answer was written there. What the hell was happening to him?  
He had definitely never found humans attractive. Their shape was strange and they had all that useless extra body fat at the weirdest places… Their skin was smooth and even, his talons could shred through it without effort. And all the hair? What was the purpose? It was an intriguing appendage that much he would admit, but still, it seemed very alien to him.  
He never touched a human with the intention of exploring all these features, so now that he thought about it, he couldn't really imagine how they actually felt. Until this point, he always thought them disgustingly mushy, but right now he started wondering if that might not be true at all.

* * *

Shepard wasn't a morning person at all, but that day she was grumpier than usual. Dreaming about a turian wasn't something she was happy about, especially if said guy kept wiping the floor with her. It would have been embarrassing enough in real life, but now her mind just had to go and play it out in HD just to make her life miserable.  
In her dream, her biotics wouldn't work and her moves just kept missing. She was back to her old, helpless self…

She splashed cold water on her face; she didn't want to think about it anymore. There were enough stuff to worry about that were actually happening in reality. Right now, they were hunting a fugitive for a fat bounty, but the guy was practically an escape artist, and the fact that at least three other teams were after him didn't make things easier.

With a meager breakfast of a protein bar she sat down to check her messages. Most of them seemed unimportant, but there was something from Karin's alias. Shepard opened it immediately.  
_'Get to the Citadel ASAP. The Chief wants to talk to you.'  
_She sighed… What the hell could Anderson want? Could it be about her run-in with the Spectre? After checking in with Joker at the helm about their current situation, she typed in the approximate time of their arrival. If that guy had something to say to her, it must've been important. She owed those two a lot… Besides, the current job already sucked, so it wasn't much of a waste to leave it for good.

* * *

Shepard never liked the Citadel. It was too flashy, too smug, too prim… She was certain she could never get used to living at a place like that. To make things worse, Anderson choose a nice, tidy, sophisticated coffee shop in the middle of a grandiose plaza with a startling blue artificial sky and cute little flowerbeds.  
She felt out of her element at places like this; she was sticking out like a sore thumb with her old, comfy, used clothes. She shrugged as a group of neatly dressed asari passed her with a condescending look. Whatever… She could beat any of them in the biotics department if she needed to.

Finally, she spotted Anderson at a table in his spotless uniform. He was holding a menu like he had nothing better to do. Was she late?  
"Chief."  
He looked up and a small smile appeared on his face, but something seemed off.  
"Shepard. Have a seat."  
She did. Frustrated by the huge open space, she leaned forward, propping her elbows on the table.  
"Am I in trouble?"  
Anderson studied her for a moment before answering, and he certainly seemed troubled about something.  
"Might be."  
"Is it about the Spectre?", she sighed and scratched the back of her head.  
"How do you know about that?", he asked suspiciously.  
"Wait… what?"  
Shepard was totally confused. What the hell was going on?

A waitress appeared next to their table and served their drinks.  
"I've already placed an order for you, I hope you don't mind."  
Actually, it wasn't hard to figure her tastes out. Ever since he had known her, Shepard always asked for a hot chocolate if she had a chance to do so. She simply nodded and grabbed her glass.  
"Normally, I wouldn't drag you into official matters, but this case is different."  
She swallowed a spoonful of cream before answering.  
"Someone from the gang?"  
Anderson nodded.  
"Well, you've already iced the toughest guys, so I don't see what could be the problem…"  
"Clancy has escaped."  
Shepard just started sipping her drink and she almost choked on it.  
"What? **_Worm_**? How? When?"  
Each of her questions held more emotion than the former, but it was hard to discern what exactly it was. Anger, rage, frustration, panic… It was a strange mix of all of them.

"A few days ago. The first investigation was a dead end."  
Shepard gripped the glass so hard that it almost cracked.  
"Well, fortunately, I have some free time. I'll just hunt down that son of a bitch again and you can put his ass back in jail."  
It was lucky coincidence that she was nearby and getting to the Citadel didn't take much time. If she had to get there from the Terminus, she would've lost valuable time.  
"It's not that easy… The matter is intergalactical. Before he was caught, he had already been meddling around Council business. Many of the things he stole hadn't been recovered ever since."  
"So?"  
The guy was a pain in the ass; that much she knew very well. If the Chief wanted her help with this, he didn't even have to _ask_ for it, so Shepard had no idea what all the stonewalling was for.  
"The Council gave the investigation to a Spectre. I'll only be a counselor on this case, assisting when I'm told to do so. That was the most I could get out of it."  
"I still don't understand. Just give me the details unofficially, and I'll get him before they even have a chance to start their investigation. We'll say I just ran into him or something…"  
Anderson sighed. He knew this wasn't going to go easy.  
"That won't work, Shepard. Things are more complicated than last time. Besides, the Spectre who handles the case is quite capable. I trust him, and that's why I recommended you as a further asset."  
Shepard jumped up from her seat and smashed her hands against the table.  
"What? You _recommended_ me? You know I don't do anything 'official'!"  
"Calm down, Shepard. We'll treat this as a special case." A discreet ping of his omnitool distracted him for a minute. "Ah… finally… it was just about time."

"Captain Anderson."  
The distinct voice of a turian sounded from behind her back. Shepard practically flew around. She had a very bad feeling about this.  
"So this is the acquaintance you've been talking about. Quite interesting…"  
Nihlus's tone seemed jovial. He was truly amused by this turn of events.  
"Fuck", Shepard muttered, as she took a step sideways to get the table out of her back. Her body started glowing from the increased flow of biotic energy.  
"Don't even think about it." Garrus stepped forward from Nihlus's side, pointing his gun towards her.

Anderson was utterly confused. What the hell was happening? Did they know each other? Did Shepard get herself into trouble with the Council?  
"Relax, both of you." Nihlus chuckled, putting his hand on Garrus's arm and forcing him to lower the weapon. "This is just a business lunch. Try acting like adults. We're not on Omega, after all."  
He shot a meaningful gaze towards Shepard, while Anderson also pointed his questioning stare at her.  
"Tch… Whatever." She straightened her back as her powers went dormant again.  
"Well, now that's settled, let's discuss our current objective."  
Nihlus took a seat casually like nothing happened. After a few moments of reluctance, Garrus and Shepard followed, keeping as far from each other as possible.

"Would anyone care to explain to me what just happened?"  
Anderson's displeased stare made Shepard sink even deeper into her seat as she crossed her arms in front of her chest protectively.  
"My pupil and the girl had a little bit of a misunderstanding back on Omega. That's all."  
That was a very diplomatic way to put things, but for now, they left it at that. Shepard knew that she wasn't off the hook yet, but at least Karin wasn't there to reprimand her in front of all these people.  
"I guess it's time to introduce ourselves properly. My name is Nihlus Kryik, and I'm a Council-appointed Spectre. This one here is my trainee, Garrus Vakarian."  
He motioned towards the younger turian, who in turn nodded towards Anderson, but ignored Shepard completely.  
"I'm Captain David Anderson of the Systems Alliance. Grumpy here is called Rhea Shepard. I've recommended her assistance in the investigations, because it was her who caught Clancy in the first place."  
Shepard grunted in displeasure at the use of her first name.  
"That's interesting. The official file says it was you, Captain Anderson."  
Nihlus's tone didn't sound accusing. He was simply curious about the nature of this whole 'impossible' situation.  
"Officially, yes. I was the one who brought him to court, but it wasn't me who got to him first." He paused for a moment, knowing that the next part will earn him a scorn from the girl. "When Clancy deserted the Alliance, we chased him down. Shepard used to run with the gang he decided to hide in…" And there came the 'I hate you' look only a woman could manage.  
"Figures…", Garrus scoffed, and Shepard honestly considered throwing the ashtray at his head.  
"The point is… she knows Clancy's connections better than any of us do. If you want to make them talk, she's your best shot."  
"That might be true."  
Nihlus seemed to be seriously considering the _pros _and _cons_ of this option. He looked at Garrus and he could easily tell that he was excited to hear his answer, although it was unclear if he was standing with or against it.  
He turned his gaze towards Shepard. The human tried hard to act like she didn't care at all, but the small, anxious movements of her fingers practically shouted that she did.  
"Very well.", the Spectre sighed. "I trust your judgment, Anderson. We'll see soon if this plan of yours works out or not."


	6. The hunt begins

Garrus shook his head once again in disbelief as he strode through the docking bays of the Citadel with a simple, standard military kit-bag thrown over his shoulder. He couldn't figure Nihlus out these days. Was he testing, or worse, punishing him?  
He was almost there. As his gaze casually mapped the crowded hall, his eyes caught a familiar shade of red. He let out a frustrated growl. This mission was going to be worse than anything he ever went through.

Shepard stood there, leaning against a pillar with her hands tucked deep inside her pockets. She completely ignored the crowd around her and kept staring at the huge safety glass windows. Before their meeting in the brightly lit plaza, Garrus only saw her bathed in the flashing clublights of the Afterlife, but still, he would've been lying if he said that she didn't stand out even then. There was something vivid to her presence, and it wasn't just her inconveniently bold hair color…  
If he ever needed to snipe her down, it would've been the easiest task he could imagine, because annoying as it was, his sight seemed to be automatically drawn to her.  
But what was she doing there now? She didn't seem to be waiting for someone, or looking for something. She just kept standing there, staring at the same spot.  
With a sigh, he walked up to her. When she didn't react to his presence, he spoke up, trying to make his tone as official as possible.  
"Shepard."  
She didn't even turn her head, only her irises moved to stare at him from the corner of her eyes. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, she finally answered.  
"Took you long enough. You're putting women to shame…"

Garrus almost growled at her, but regained composure in the last second before he made a fool out of himself. She was just messing with him. He had to prove Nihlus that he was mature enough to deal with this… 'annoying little problem'.  
"Nobody asked you to wait for me. Can we go now?" He used his best 'like I care' voice.  
"Thought you might get lost." She shrugged, then pushed herself from the pillar and started walking.  
Garrus closed the distance right away, settling on the human's right side.  
Shepard gave him a sideways glance, then deliberately slowed down and passed behind him to get him on her left side. The turian rolled his eyes. He had no idea what the hell could've been her problem.  
"What now?", he hissed through his teeth.  
"Shut up and keep going."  
Well, at least this was the answer he expected. Must've been some strange, stupid habit of hers; it didn't really matter to him.

_This mission would better be over soon…_

* * *

Even though Garrus seemed pretty clueless about his decision, Nihlus was confident about his reasons. He agreed to involve Shepard, because he had seen what she was capable of. She was stubborn and maybe a bit too daring, but she seemed like the survival type. Her little act on Omega was more than enough proof.

Putting her and Garrus on the same team was a huge gamble, but the prospect of it actually working made the whole thing worth the risk. They both seemed to be around the same physiological _and_ mental age, and they both had a very potent fire burning inside them. Pushing them into the fray together was the best way to see if they could grow to accept each other as comrades, or maybe even as friends.  
Somehow he had a hunch that those two could learn a lot from each other. He didn't know much about Shepard, but he was damn sure that Garrus needed some outside help to find his own path somewhere between his naïve ideals and his father's strict expectations. And to do so by fighting alongside a human… Nihlus just had to love the irony.

He came up with the idea when Shepard refused to board his ship, and insisted on bringing along the Nayad and her own 'crew'. He needed someone on board to keep an eye on her anyway…  
Right now, Anderson's team was trying to pick up something useful from digging through the old investigations while Nihlus chased after the trail by following the recent leads.  
In the meantime, he sent Shepard to a prison colony to meet up with her old gang leader and see if she could get some info out of him. Of course, Garrus was ordered to send reports about their progress and keep things in check if needed, and if things went wrong, Nihlus could still come up with an alternative for the remaining part of the mission.

* * *

The introduction to Shepard's crew wasn't the least bit pleasant, but Garrus expected this much. When they finally reached the ship, she quickly went over the necessary formalities before leaving the Citadel, but at least she kept the hostility to a minimum. She must've already briefed them about their assignment, because none of them seemed surprised by his presence and they didn't start asking questions about it either.  
"Guys, this is Garrus Vakarian. He'll be tagging along for now. You can start poking him with your personal questions later."  
Well, not a warm welcome, but at least she remembered his name correctly. But what the hell was that about the personal stuff?  
"My name is Joker, and I'm the best helmsman in the world."  
The person who said that was also a human, and he kept to his seat through the whole introduction. His tone seemed too jolly to mistake his former statement as smugness. Shepard still knocked him lightly on the head while she immediately grabbed the chance to take back the initiative, naming the other people present one-by-one.  
"Grunt."  
"Your fight with Shepard on Omega seemed like fun. You better not be some weakling…"  
The krogan gave a rumbling laugh as he smashed his fists together.  
"Tali."  
"If you mess with the ship, I'll skin you."  
The quarian's voice seemed young and hostile. If she was their engineer, Garrus must've been right about her messing with the data on the pirate ship too.  
"Jack."  
"Don't listen to them. We're all nice and friendly people."  
This human shocked him the most. Her skin was covered with all kinds of strange markings, and her head only had hair on the top. Her voice was sultry, she kept staring at him and she licked her lips as she spoke. Garrus had no idea what her expression meant, but it certainly unnerved him.

"Give him a break, Jack."  
Shepard's tone seemed nonchalant like she didn't really care and just said it out of courtesy, or something like that.  
"What? Want him all for yourself, Shepard?"  
The other woman's expression changed, and Garrus could finally label this one as 'competitive'.  
"Fuck you."  
"Bitch."  
They didn't really seem to be angry at each other, and as he looked around, he realized that no one actually cared about it either. Well, no one, but Joker, apparently. He looked up at the turian, then back to the girls.  
"I just love catfights…"

Garrus just stood there, wishing for this whole misery to be over. He didn't even want to guess the context…  
Luckily, Shepard didn't have much patience for the ordeal either. She waved the last insult off as she walked up to Joker and pulled him gently to his feet.  
"We have stuff to do. Get us to Azaar as soon as possible."  
"Aye, captain."  
Shepard slipped an arm under the pilot's shoulder and helped him walk towards the helm of the ship.  
"Aw, come on, Shepard, don't embarrass me in front of the new guy."  
She sighed, but let go of the man, and Joker limped back to his seat by himself.  
For a moment, Garrus thought about asking where he injured his leg, but eventually decided not to. It was none of his business, and this was just a temporary setup anyway.

* * *

"Haven't seen you 'round for some time, Raccoon."  
"I'd rather not stare at your ugly mug if I don't have to."  
Shepard leaned back into her chair and propped her legs up at the table in front of her. The man on the other side of that table stared at her intently for some time, then laughed, but it didn't sound honest. His voice was throaty and hoarse. It must've had something to do with the huge scar on his neck.  
She didn't exaggerate when she called the guy's face 'ugly'. The man was unusually tall for a human, bulky, but not fat. His face was covered with numerous scars. It was very likely that he had them all over his body. Garrus stood behind Shepard and tried not to stare too bluntly at the human before them. The man was called 'the Gargoyle', and even though the turian had no idea what a 'gargoyle' was, he had a very strong feeling that it had something to do with his looks.

"Well, look at you now, what a fine lass…"  
Even though his words seemed harmless, his tone didn't hold any kindness.  
"Stop it, Gargoyle. It's embarrassing coming from a useless old man like you."  
"Tch… Well, what the hell do you want? Spit it out, I don't have all day."  
It was pretty clear that this guy wasn't the 'supplementary father figure' in the redhead's life. He was always a ruthless son of a bitch to begin with, and picking up a dirty kid from the streets wasn't going to change that. In fact, it was one of his frequently used recruiting methods; the little rats where good for the small jobs, and if they were good enough and lived long enough, they grew into quite the obedient pawns. Boys and girls, he didn't differentiate, all would be good for something sooner or later.

"Clancy.", Shepard said with a hint of disgust in her tone.  
"I thought you already took care of him.", the Gargoyle grunted as a response.  
"Stop fucking around."  
"What do you want from me? I haven't left this shithole for years, thanks to _you_, you little whore."  
He pushed his arms against the table like he was just about to jump at them. Garrus's muscles tensed for a second, and he was surprised to see that Shepard didn't move an inch.  
"Sucks to be you… But word gets around. I want to know where he is."  
"You don't go around wanting things in here…", the man growled.  
They stared at each other for long moments in silence, then it all happened in a second.

Shepard pulled her legs backwards so fast that before any of the males in the room could react, the heavy, fixed table was sent flying across the room and crushed the boss's face with a loud noise of cracking bones. Well, that kick was definitely powered up with a handful amount of biotics, but to pull a trick like that so swiftly one would need an excellent control – or the absolute lack of it.  
"Sorry. I'm still having anger management issues."  
Garrus couldn't really decide if she actually meant it or it was just sarcasm, but he soon found out that it didn't really matter.

The Gargoyle pushed the table off of himself with a loud grunt. His nose was definitely broken judging from its awkward shape and the decent amount of blood rushing from the wound and his nostrils. His thick eyebrows also split open, making him unable to see with his left eye.  
"You're here because of your own stupidity. You should've known that teaming up with that maggot was going to cost you."  
Shepard stood up and crossed her arms. She still kept her calm, but Garrus could tell from the stiffness of her stance that she had no idea if her plan worked or not.  
The huge guy spat out the blood from his mouth. He seemed to be contemplating his options for a few seconds before he spoke.  
"Red Wolves."  
"The Wolves?"  
It seemed rather unlikely. The Red Wolves were elite mercenaries and they only accepted humans into their ranks. Each and every member of the organization was a well-trained killer. They specialized in murder, not stealing and conspiring…

The Gargoyle didn't answer. He turned away from them and banged on the heavy metal door to get the guard's attention. That guy was already 'persuaded' into minding his own business elsewhere, and he didn't seem too surprised when he finally arrived.  
Shepard knew that was the most they would get out of the boss right now. His dark expression made it obvious that he didn't expect other visits from the girl in the near future.

* * *

Shepard scratched her head as they walked through the unfriendly corridors of the building. She might've been able to make him say a little bit more, but Garrus's presence wasn't helping at all. Having another male in the room – no matter what race – made the Gargoyle sensitive to his 'man-pride', and she couldn't allow to lose face either in front of the turian.

"That was risky."  
Garrus finally broke the silence as they walked next to each other.  
"What?"  
Shepard was still contemplating the Red Wolves appearance in the picture. Those guys just didn't fit in there at all…  
"Your trick with the table. You could've caused him to shut up completely."  
"You feelin' sorry for him?"  
"Of course not. But getting beaten up by your subordinate… That's really shameful. You should've let me do something."  
Shepard stopped abruptly, and Garrus was forced to follow suit.  
"You've grown up in a greenhouse or something?"  
"Excuse me?"  
The docks were already in sight, so Shepard nodded towards their ship. If you kept standing around a prison colony too long, you might just get stuck in there…

Once the airlock hissed shut behind them, the human practically pinned Garrus to the wall with her gaze.  
"You know absolutely nothing about how things work on the streets. Were you never been out of that glass cage you call 'the Citadel'?"  
"I wasn't born there.", he huffed.  
Being lectured by her felt awfully embarrassing. At least no one else was around, and he certainly hoped that nobody was listening in on the conversation.  
"Well, if you meddle with outlaws and lowlifes, you better remember; rank and title doesn't mean shit to us. You prove yourself right then and there, or you can go fuck yourself."  
She became all fired up during her little speech, and she even took the liberty of pointing a finger at the turian's chest. It must've looked comical; her small form pushing the taller guy into a corner so easily…

Garrus growled and hit her hand away. He was more than ready to 'prove himself'. He lashed out; his arms grabbing her shoulders so fast that when Shepard's mind finally caught on, she already found herself pushed up against the wall.  
"Looking for a fight, _Blue_?", she hissed through her teeth.  
She immediately tried to pull her legs up to knee the turian in the guts as hard as she could, but this time, he had the advantage. He shifted closer, pinning her down and sealing her movements completely. The only way for her to break out of his grasp was to overpower him with sheer force, and to do that, she would have to use her biotics…  
He was a fool if he thought she wouldn't do it just because she omitted using them last time.

"Umm… guys, I'm not against having a little fun from time to time, but if you damage any part of the ship, you'll be dealing with a _very_ angry quarian."  
It was Joker's voice on the radio. Shepard sighed as her anger slowly started fading. Of course that bastard would be eavesdropping…  
Garrus's rage also lost its edge with the sudden interruption. He let go of the human, and left towards the battery without a word. He kept telling himself that he needed to report this 'Red Wolves' thing to Nihlus.  
Somewhere in the corner of his mind, he was already wishing for dreamless sleep.


	7. Into the fire

**AN: It's been a long time. For the people who followed this story: sorry for taking so long. (Personal drama, creativity crisis, stuff like that.) Watching Gravity in the cinema helped me get back into space-loving mood. The story's not much and at certain points it gets annoying as hell, but the view is marvellous. I'm planning to update my other story as well in a few days.**

* * *

Chapter 7 – Into the fire

Time passed annoyingly slow in these last few days. Garrus tried keeping to himself as much as possible, but there were still moments of overshooting tension when he had to stay in the same room with Shepard for more than 3 minutes.  
Luckily, he soon managed to strike a deal with the quarian; he was allowed to tinker around with their Mako as long as his upgrades stayed inside the 'reasonable' and 'manageable' departments.  
The cargo hold was usually quiet and peaceful, except the times when Grunt showed up and started prodding Garrus with questions. At first, he found the krogan annoying, but after some time the creature started growing on him. His curiosity was easy enough to sate; he always asked something about training, fighting, and/or killing, so answering him didn't require too much of deep thinking.

Garrus was surprised when Shepard didn't show her face at all; he half-expected her to barge in at some point and jump right at his throat. He could effortlessly imagine her smaller form charging at him, her flaring biotics filling up the dark hall with an eerie glow… He caught himself thinking up possible scenarios of their impending fight on more than one occasion; he planned for more than a dozen ways of disarming her completely. Judging from their short but rather eventful past, an all-out fight was bound to happen sooner or later.

Time kept ticking away, but she never came.

* * *

His arm slipped and the wrench sprung down from the metal surface with a loud screech. He spat some turian curses and pushed himself out from under the Mako. The damn machine was just as stubborn as its owner.  
As he tried wiping his hands into a dirty cloth, Garrus realized that he was a complete mess. Fixing stuff was good enough for a hobby, but it all started getting a bit too frustrating after spending a whole day cramped under that oversized tin-can. He sighed and threw the rag away. He needed a drink, and preferably something strong enough to get his systems working again.

The Nayad was a fast, but small frigate, and therefore didn't have much room for all the facilities that were supposed to be stuffed inside the design. The 'Mess hall' was composed of a small kitchen and a moderate-sized dining table, and it shared the space with the 'Command Center', where all former meetings took place.  
Shepard was sitting in an oversized seat at the built-in computers, right next to Tali. They were looking through data quite excitedly; the interface kept flashing from the flow of appearing and disappearing screens. The redhead glanced back when she heard movement. After realizing that it was 'ust' Garrus, she chose to ignore him completely.  
The turian did the same as he kept roaming through the drawers for some dextro equivalent of coffee.

"Garrus."  
He paused, his hand floating in mid-air. It was the quarian's voice. She sounded suspiciously cheerful.  
"Grunt told us that you specialize in sniper rifles."  
"I do.", he nodded. For a moment, he thought about leaving it at that, but his pride got the better of him. "But I'm also proficient with an assault rifle if needed… And of course, hand-to-hand combat."  
At the last part, his gaze settled on the back of Shepard's seat, but the she didn't show any sign of either listening or caring.  
"That's great!", Tali clapped her hands together and turned back towards the other woman. "See, I told you we can do it like that!"  
"Exactly… we _can_, but we don't _have to_."  
"Seriously, Shepard?"  
The quarian's tone was displeased. What could they have been arguing about?  
"Grunt won't be happy if we start sneaking around…", Shepard stated with an even voice like it was the most obvious thing in the world.  
"What? Are you out of your mind? You want to bring him with us?"  
The quarian's voice seemed shocked as her arms flew around in a theatrical gesture.  
Shepard also turned in her seat a little, so now she showed her side to Garrus instead of her back.  
"Why not? It'll be fun…", she said with a shrug.  
"Yeah, and then we can spend the next few years running from those guys…"  
Shepard sighed – and most likely rolled her eyes – as she fell back deep into her seat.  
"Besides, Garrus is here to supervise you. He'll be tagging along anyway, so why not use his abilities to the fullest?"  
At the end of that sentence, both women turned around to give the turian a measuring stare.

While the girls kept arguing, Garrus quietly went ahead and prepared his drink. Now he was leaning against the counter and listened to the ongoing conversation with a steaming mug in his hand. At the mention of his name, he raised his brow-plates questioningly. He returned Shepard's stare with an equally sharp gaze until the human finally gave in and shrugged.  
"Whatever, but you'll be the one explaining it to him."  
She turned in her seat, showing her back again; a clear sign that she didn't wish to participate any further.  
"Maybe you should stop acting like a child sometimes…", it was Tali sighing this time.  
"That's funny coming from you…"  
The quarian shook her head and turned back towards Garrus.  
"Could you come here for a second?"

Garrus walked up to Tali and she motioned towards the screen. Before he turned his attention to the data, he peaked at Shepard's form from the corner of his eyes. The redhead sat there in a seemingly very uncomfortable position with her legs tweaked and tangled in a strange angle in front of her. One of her elbows was propped onto her knee and her hand rested on top of her palm. She was purposely ignored him.  
When he turned towards the large screen, he saw the blueprints of a building.  
"We tracked down one of the Red Wolf bases. They're pretty tough guys, so messing with them directly on the front isn't a good idea. Our current plan is to break into this place and get into their systems. If they played any part in Clancy's escape, we'll know for sure."  
Garrus quietly hummed and scratched his chin as he started studying the map.  
"You were right, Tali. This can be done with minimal casualties. I can take the guards here out quite easily." He tapped on the mentioned point. "If you can disable security before we enter the building it'll be a walk in the park."  
The quarian stared at the map, then at Garrus, and finally at Shepard.  
"See? I told you!"  
"Tch…" was her only answer.

The feeling of making Shepard frustrated in front of her friend was priceless. Garrus held back a grin… This round was his.

* * *

They have been sitting still in the Mako for hours, observing and waiting for the perfect moment. Their current position was located on Ae-Tu, a rather large moon specifically colonized for mining Iridium. 99% of the colonists were human, making the place a perfect hiding spot for any strictly human-only organization. To avoid suspicion, the only ones showing face outside were Shepard and Joker.

Finding the spot wasn't the big deal, but to make Tali's and Garrus's plan work perfectly, they needed to wait until everything fell into place.  
It was only the three of them in the small, cramped space; the quarian, the human and the turian. To make things work, both of the latter chose to pay no attention to each other. Thanks to them, the silence was killing the mood slowly, but steadily.  
As time passed, Shepard grew more and more anxious. There were lots of reasons for that, the most important being the fact that she never was a quiet person to begin with, and she also detested sitting around and doing absolutely nothing. As a bonus, she found the plan absolutely ridiculous; sneaking in – sneaking out; no flashy ass-kicking, no tearing down the place, no fun at all.

When the guards eventually changed shifts after what seemed like an eternity of being stuck in hell, they were finally on the move, using the darkness of nighttime and the uneven terrain as a cover.  
Seeing Garrus's signal the girls stopped and crouched down, watching him from behind as the turian readied his sniper rifle.  
"What's all this fiddling about?", Shepard whispered in a grumpy tone, but Tali hushed her immediately.  
Judging from the small twitch of his head, Garrus must have also heard it, but in the end, he chose to ignore them. He took up a comfortable position and trailed his scope along the upper edge of the wall. After firing two soundless, but deadly shots, he finally straightened up, showing that the area was absolutely clear.  
They sprinted through an open field. When they were close enough, Tali pulled up her omnitool interface. After she pushed in a few simple commands, a combat drone sprung to life right next to her, broadcasting a signal that would soon disrupt all electronic communication nearby. They only needed this little boost as long as they reached the first accessible control panel at the gates; the quarian managed to break into the outer system in almost no time. From that point on, Tali had every data she needed to navigate inside the building without being detected.

* * *

The whole thing felt very alien to Shepard; she wasn't used to hiding behind corners and closed doors while dodging security sensors…  
After sneaking through a few corridors, they finally reached a suitable room for getting into the inner system. Tali instantly ran up to the console and started tinkering. Judging from the amount of muffled swear words coming from the quarian's direction, Shepard came to the conclusion that things weren't as easy as her friend expected them to be. Having nothing else to do, she settled down onto a crate with her shotgun in hand.

Garrus stayed near the door during the whole time. He just stood there with his back against the wall, checking his rifle from time to time. An obvious sign of boredom.  
"Shepard… I think there might be a problem…", sounded Tali's disturbed voice.  
"What?" Shepard instinctively jumped up from her makeshift seat even though there was no enemy in sight.  
"This system… it's way too advanced… it's impossible for simple mercs to have something like this…"  
"What do you mean by that? Can't you do something about it?"  
Before the quarian could've answered, Garrus interrupted with a forced cough.  
"We're just about to have company…"  
His hand was already hovering over the control panel, waiting for the other two to decide what to do. The girls stared at each other for a few more seconds before Tali answered with a shaken voice.  
"I think I can get the data… But I need some time…"  
Shepard nodded and kicked her crate into the center for cover. After that she trashed the place for some more. In the mean time, Garrus started pushing in standard codes into the door's control panel to get the room into some kind of an emergency lockdown. As soon as he was finished, he headed to the back and instinctively jumped behind the piled up blockade, only realizing just a moment later that he was sharing space with his new nemesis, the redhead.

Shepard stared at the turian for a few seconds with a meaningful gaze like she was heavily contemplating something. After being frozen in the uncomfortable silence for a while, she finally blinked and leaned forward as she readied her shotgun.  
"Since you're new, I'll tell you the rules."  
Garrus's mandibles fell open in surprise but he wasn't given a chance to start asking for clarification.  
"One kill, one point. That's it. There aren't any fancy bonus points. If we can't decide who fired the killshot, then it's zero points for everyone involved."  
"So what's in it for me?", Garrus asked as he kept staring at the human.  
"The winner gets to pull a 'jackpot' on the loser. That means the loser must do whatever they're told to. No _veto_."  
Shepard gave the turian a challenging look, which he returned with a nod.  
"Seems easy enough. Beating you can't be too hard anyway...", Garrus answered in a teasing tone as he too leaned forward, assault rifle in hand.  
"Yeah… like you had a chance to begin with."

* * *

The lights changed to green and the door hissed open, revealing an empty corridor.  
"Fuck…", Garrus snarled as a small metal container flew into the room and started filling up the space with a thick layer of smoke.  
"That's too easy."  
Shepard's voice was cocky as usual. She held up one arm and the eerie glow of biotics in use appeared around her. She sent the grenade flying with a swift motion, pushing the smoke backwards and out into the corridor, leaving their enemies with only a small amount of cover and themselves with enough fresh air to breath in.  
The first guy who jumped into sight was heavily armed and his powerful shield charged the air in the room with electricity.  
"Fuckin' tank…" Shepard gritted through her teeth as she ducked into cover.  
"Giving up already?", Garrus asked with a smug smile as he loaded some kind of glowing ammunition into his rifle.  
When the rain of enemy fire quieted down, he jumped up and emptied a whole clip into the guy, tearing his shields completely. Then he ducked again for reloading, and when he turned to flash a grin to the redhead, he found her spot empty. She was already on the top of their barricade, charging her whole body with biotics. In the next moment, she was gone…  
Garrus heard the sound of bones breaking. He jerked his head back towards their opponent, only to see him fall to the ground with a broken neck.  
"What the hell?", he shouted.  
"You snooze you lose…"  
Shepard's voice was awfully cheerful and she didn't seem to feel guilty at all about stealing the turian's kill.

In the next moment, enemies started pouring in through the doors and they were soon greeted by a blast of biotic energy. Using their confusion as a tactical time-out, Shepard jumped to flank the entrance.  
"Not much patience there, huh?", she shouted sarcastically.  
"Reminds me of someone…"  
She expected this retort from Tali, but the quarian must've been too busy trying to figure things out because it came from Garrus. Just after that he fired his rifle and took out two opponents while the third one managed to jump back behind the wall just in time.  
"You don't say…", Shepard grumbled. Then she pulled the trigger and blew off the head of the unfortunate survivor of the former assault as he tried to peek inside. "If you meant the smartass turian, then I can relate." She fired another shot.  
"I didn't.", Garrus answered as he mowed down a row of incoming mercs.  
"Pity.", came Shepard's response as she used her biotics to smash a few other opponents into the wall.

"You two seem to be having fun, but maybe you'll be glad to hear that it's done."  
The quarian left the control panel and pulled out a shotgun to join the fight.  
"You could've just said 'done', Tali…"  
Shepard's voice held a hint of frustration. She really didn't like standing in one spot…  
"Let's get going…" Garrus also jumped out of cover, closing up on the girls. "What's the plan?"  
Before Tali could've spoken a word, Shepard already holstered her gun.  
"You two fucked up with your 'careful' planning. We're doing it my way."  
She rushed outside with her arms lifted, and as soon as she stepped past the door, she sent a powerful blast of biotic energy towards each direction to clear the way in case there were any troops remaining. She soon found out that this was a rather unnecessary act as the corridor was empty… Well, if she didn't count the bodies they left behind…  
The sound of rushing footsteps echoed from somewhere deep inside the building, and they instantly knew that this was their small window of opportunity. The three of them started hurrying towards the exit, covering each other's back along the way. They only encountered a few other mercs but none of them posed a real threat.  
Everything went smoothly until they reached the gate.

* * *

"You Bosh'tet!", Tali screamed desperately as she hit the control panel with her fist.  
"What now?", grunted Shepard and Garrus simultaneously.  
"Someone's been messing with the systems. I can't get through." Even though her face couldn't be seen, the quarian sounded devastated.  
"Uhh… yeah… YOU've been messing with it, remember?" Shepard obviously was running low on patience.  
"She doesn't mean it like that." Garrus seemed to catch on things faster than his rival. "You can do it Tali, you just need some time, right?" He placed a hand on the girl's shoulder to encourage her, but it didn't help much as they suddenly heard people shouting not so far away.

"Fuck this… I'm done waiting."  
Shepard started jumping around. She proceeded with loosening her muscles as she kept staring at the gates like she was trying to burn a hole right through them.  
"Shepard, that's crazy… you can't do it. You'll just hurt yourself." Tali tried to step up to her, but Garrus was still holding her shoulder, although he was unaware of it.  
"What's going on?"  
The turian was utterly confused and his gaze darted from one woman to the other. In the next moment, Shepard's whole body started glowing from the released energy. She didn't stop, however, and the light around her grew brighter and brighter until her form was practically blazing.  
"Hey _Blue_… Do me a favor, will ya? Just pick me up after this, because I'm damn sure I won't be feeling like frolicking around for a while."  
Garrus's eyes grew wide as the whole thing finally sunk in. Before he could say anything, however, Shepard was already gone, leaving behind only a dim trace of floating biotic energy in her wake.


End file.
